Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes

Joey always makes the pancakes. We used to have pancakes and eggs every weekend, and Joey would make the fluffiest buttermilk pancakes (from a mix) ever. He also usually handled the eggs, and I would take care of making the veggies for our eggs, and maybe getting coffee prepped. We finished off our giant bag of pancake mix from Sam's Club, and haven't bought any since. Joey decided to make me pumpkin pancakes, to finish up our Thanksgiving cooking. He found the recipe himself, and I realized once he showed it to me, that it was one I had already pinned on pinterest. It's a good thing he found it, since I have so many recipes on pinterest that I can never get to all of them.

The pancakes were so good! They're a bit thicker than regular pancakes, and almost had a muffin-like texture. We didn't make the streusel in the original recipe (check out Two Peas and Their Pod for those directions), since we didn't want to go overboard with how decadent they were. I love that we always have everything on hand to make them, and they could easily be made into banana bread pancakes or applesauce pancakes, by subbing out the pumpkin.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes
Adapted slightly from Two Peas and Their Pod
Yield: 5 large pancakes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (we used white whole wheat flour)
2 tbsp light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup milk (we used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Butter or cooking spray for pan

Directions:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices. In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and whisk until just combined.

Heat a pan over medium-low heat, and coat with cooking spray or butter. Drop ~1/3-1/2 cup of batter onto heated pan, and spread out so it is all one thickness. (The batter is pretty thick, so otherwise you'll end up with a mound in the middle that doesn't cook all the way through, and burned edges.)

Cook on the first side until bubbles begin to form, about 2-3 minutes. Carefully flip over, and cook another 2-3 minutes, until golden brown. Continue until you have used all of the pancake batter.

Serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice, and your favorite pancake syrup.

If you like this recipe, check out the recipes below!




Overnight Cinnamon Rolls






     




Baked Pumpkin French Toast           

French Toast with Homemade Crusty Bread

Pumpkin Spice Granola

It's official, we have a new favorite granola. Of course, it's just a variation on the one we've been making for months, but it still feels new. This one utilizes my favorite homemade baking ingredient of the fall - pumpkin butter. And even better, this was 100% Joey's idea! I love that he is coming up with new ways to incorporate pumpkin into everything. I will never ever complain about that.

This is going to sound strange, but we omitted the salt from the recipe because we found it tasted slightly off. I normally always use a little bit of salt in all of my baked goods, and don't actually taste it, but somehow it affected the taste of the granola. Every once in a while, we'll forget about that oddity and include it by mistake, just because we're carefully following the original recipe, and we can definitely tell that we used it.

This is a really easy recipe to follow, and it can work with whatever you have in your kitchen. The original recipe calls for dried fruit, so if you like that, add up to 1 cup to the granola once it comes out of the oven. Use your favorite nuts, but for the best results, use raw - they'll get nice and toasted while baking. You also could use any kind of fruit/vegetable puree - here I use a combination of applesauce and pumpkin butter, but you could use either of those alone, or pumpkin puree, strawberry puree, etc. The spices are another place where you can play around with the recipe. This granola could taste completely different with just a few simple changes.

My favorite part of this, though, is how healthy it is! You can put a big scoop on top of your greek yogurt and fresh fruit (my favorite way of eating this), without needing to count calories.

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Granola
Adapted from: Baking Bites
Yield: 20 (1/3-cup) servings

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups crispy rice cereal
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup of nuts (I've used pecans, sunflower seeds, cashews, and almonds in the past)
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup apple sauce (or just a little less than a 4 oz individual container)
1/2 cup pumpkin butter (use homemade!)
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 F. Line a large baking sheet with foil.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats and cereal.

Chop up your nuts (this time we used pecans, whole cashews, and almonds).

Measure out all of your spices (we are a big fan of cinnamon so I used TONS)

Add spices and nuts to the cereal mixture.

In a medium bowl, mix together the brown sugar, apple sauce, pumpkin butter, honey and vanilla.

Pour the wet mixture into the large bowl, and mix well until everything is combined.

Spread out on the baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, then (carefully) flip everything over. Bake another 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy on the edges.


Cool on the pan. Break up into pieces, and enjoy over yogurt, with milk, or just on its own for a tasty snack.

 

                                                              Big clusters on top!

Nutrition: (per 1/3-cup serving)

153 calories

4.5 g fat

28.2 g carbs

2.1 g fiber

3.2 g protein

Rugelach Cookies

For a long time now, I've been making Rugelach cookies every year for Hanukkah. I started making them with my dad, and they're always a huge hit. One year, I believe in 2008, we made them to bring to a Christmas cookie exchange party in the neighborhood. We actually won! We usually go traditional with them, using a raspberry jam to spread over the circle. I think one year I added some mini chocolate chips in with the brown sugar and pecan mixture, but I usually don't change it up much.

This year, I was going to make some changes. I have a jar of chocolate raspberry jam (it's simply incredible), and I thought that would work perfectly. I also have a bunch of pumpkin butter, and thought that could make a perfect Thanksgiving-Hanukkah hybrid cookie. I made an additional change, but only by accident. When I decided to mix up the dough, I hadn't checked on the levels of flour in the pantry. We always have at least three different kinds of flour on hand (unbleached all purpose, white whole wheat, bread), and with all of the bags, it's hard to tell when we're out of one. Apparently we were almost all out of all purpose flour, something I realized once I measured it out. I supplemented with the white whole wheat flour, and just hoped for the best! It still turned out great - the little cookies were perfectly flaky, and I couldn't detect any whole wheat (ie healthy) flavor at all. I might do this every time I have whole wheat flour on hand, since it makes me feel a bit better about eating lots of the delicious cookies.

Recipe: Hanukkah Rugelach Cookies
Slightly adapted from Barefoot Contessa
Yield: 48 cookies

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature (that's 2 4-oz bricks, and I always use the 1/3 less fat neufchatel)
8 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 stick)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour (use all purpose if you don't have whole wheat)
6 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup of jam (raspberry or apricot are the traditional flavors, but use your favorite flavor! pumpkin butter and homemade jams work really well), pureed in a food processor or beaten with a whisk until thinner and spreadable
1 egg
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:
Cream the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and creamy. Add 1/4 cup sugar, salt and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flours and mix until just combined. Dough may be crumbly, but it will come together once wrapped up. Dump the dough out onto a well floured board and roll into a ball. Cut the ball into quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour. (Note: you can refrigerate for longer than 1 hour, you might just have to let it sit out at room temperature for a few minutes so it is easier to roll. You can also freeze dough portions, just thaw them in the refrigerator for 24 hours before using.)

To make the filling, combine the 6 tbsp sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins and pecans.

On a well-floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9-inch circle (I think it works best to do these one at a time). Spread the dough with 2 tbsp jam, and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the filling. Press the filling lightly onto the dough. Cut the dough into 12 equal wedges, cutting the whole circle into quarters, and then each quarter into thirds. A long sharp knife or pizza cutter would work best for this part. Starting with the wide edge (what was part of the perimeter of the circle), roll up each wedge. Place the cookies, points tucked under, on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat with the other three pieces of dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Beat the egg with 1 tbsp of milk or water. Brush each cookie with egg wash. Combine the 3 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon, and sprinkle the cookies with cinnamon sugar. Bake for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned. If using two trays in the oven, switch positions halfway through baking. Let cool on the pan, and then put in an airtight container. Cookies will keep at least a week at room temperature, longer if you refrigerate or freeze them.

I believe some with chocolate raspberry jam are on the left, 

and some with pumpkin butter are on the right